Mike is a retired stock broker, and now published author of Gold Rush!. In addition, he is a freelance writer specializing in real estate, personal finance and home decor now writing from San Miguel, Mexico.

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The new immigration bill (the most “sweeping reform in 50 years”) S. 2611 is an amalgam of petty causes, illogical provisions, unstructured “solutions” with zero allowances for implementation, and self-contradictory language. Despite the mess, it was passed by self-righteous politicians who repeated the mantra “it’s better than doing nothing.” This from the same gaggle of do-nothings who outright rejected the House’s law enforcement bill.

The Senate bill has our President’s full support – this same bill is a derivative of one structured by Ted Kennedy and John McCain, and supported in full by the majority of Democrats. That alone ought to give one pause – President Bush, a Democrat?

Peggy Noonan says, “The disinterest in the White House and among congressional Republicans in establishing authority on America’s borders is so amazing–the people want it, the age of terror demands it–that great histories will be written about it.”

She opines that it is possible that…”the administration’s slow and ambivalent action is the result of being lost in some geopolitical-globalist abstract-athon that has left them puffed with the rightness of their superior knowledge, sure in their membership in a higher brotherhood, and looking down on the low concerns of normal Americans living in America.

I continue to believe the administration’s problem is not that the base lately doesn’t like it, but that the White House has decided it actually doesn’t like the base.”

S. 2611 is less about law, and more about a weird, mutant agenda that melds licentiousness with an utter disregard for the end result. There are quite a few details in S. 2611 that the media has ignored and that the legislators would rather you know nothing about. Some were provisions germane to the original Kennedy-McCain bill or the pseudo revision of Hagel-Martinez, the rest are amendments that required separate votes to accept or reject. Here’s what you need to know about the Senate’s fiasco.NATIONAL SECURITY

The Senate failed to pass an amendment that would’ve made amnesty contingent on effectively securing the border. Their priorities are completely opposite those of the American people, who have repeatedly made it clear that our borders must be secured before anything else. Furthermore, buried in Arlen Specter’s manager’s package, an amendment proposed by Dodd makes it mandatory for our government to consult with Mexico before taking any security action along the border, to include building any barrier or any enforcement along the border. This includes everything from federal troops, and state-mobilized National Guard, down to local law enforcement. In other words, even if a county sheriff mobilizes a posse to guard the border, he must clear it first through Mexico. This effectively gives the Mexican government veto power over our national security concerns!

We’ve heard a lot about the 6,000 National Guard troops, assigned to help with back-up duties in order to free up Border Patrol agents. Unfortunately, that will make only 500 additional agents available to apprehend and detain lawbreakers at the border.

The White House adamantly insists that Guard troops take no role in law enforcement, even though, so long as they are under the command of their governorsâ€”as they will be under the presidentâ€™s proposalâ€”they are allowed to do so. Republicans worry that when the Guard shows up for duty, Lou Dobbsâ€™ cameras wonâ€™t be far behind, recording their impotence as they merely alert border agents to the whereabouts of entering illegal immigrants whom they must passively watch.

“Merely alert border agents to the whereabouts of entering illegal immigrants?” Sound familiar? The National Guard will, at most, be performing Minutemen duties. But wait! I thought the Minutemen were “vigilantes”, Mr. President.

A tiny concession to border security was passed (Sessions, R-AL, amendment #3979) which allows for the increase of fencing and vehicle barriers along 370 miles of the southwest border of the United States. Unfortunately, existing hardware – including rancher’s broken cattle fences – would be counted towards this paltry total.

What’s most appalling is that a Democrat tried to push through an amendment (Leahy, D-VT, amendment #4117) that would revise the existing ban on granting refugee status to aliens who have provided “material support” to a terrorist organization! Fortunately, the motion was killed, but the fact that it was even considered and proposed is deeply troubling! Who can take these guys seriously?

EMPLOYMENT

Ted Kennedy passed an amendment (#4066) that makes it unnecessary for any illegal alien to have an employer attest that they are employed when petitioning for permanent legal residence, and “self-employment” is sufficient. Plenty of room for fraud and corruption there!

Now here’s where the whole argument for “cheap labor/doing jobs Americans won’t do” flies out the window. Barak Obama (D-IL, amendment no. 3971) passed an amendment that extends the Davis-Bacon Act’s “prevailing wage” levels to all temporary guest workers. That puts them ahead of American workers, who have this protection only on federal job sites:

So guest-workers (but not citizen workers) must be paid Davis-Bacon wage rates for jobs in the private sector if their occupation is covered by Davis-Bacon. Presumably because Senate Democrats’ union bosses thought this provision too modest, an amendment by Senator Barack Obama, approved by voice vote, extended Davis-Bacon wages rates to all private work performed by guest workers, even if their occupations are not covered by Davis-Bacon.

There goes their precious “cheap labor” – this provision will effectively price many guest workers out of the market. “Guest workers” will have legal status and visas that entitle them to real wages, overtime, deductions like unemployment and social security, and workersâ€™ rights that legal workers now enjoy. Illegals will still be cheaper. Thus, twenty million illegals will be amnestied right out of the job market. Then what do we do with them when millions of new illegals flood into the country to take their place?

Now enter the litigation factor: foreign guest farm workers, admitted under the bill, cannot be “terminated from employment by any employer . . . except for just cause.” In contrast, American ag workers can be fired for any reason.

TAXES

We’ve been assured time and again that newly amnestied “guest workers” will have to pay back taxes for the years that they lived here illegally – except that they really won’t. A loophole in the new bill provides that only two years of back taxes will need to be filed. I don’t know any American citizen that can just choose not to pay taxes for years! Additionally, the Senate has now provided for illegal aliens to apply for the Earned Income Tax Credit. Our government will end up paying them!

SOCIAL SECURITY

Senator Ensign (R-NV) tried to remove the provision allowing illegal immigrants who receive legal status under the legislation to receive retro-active credit for Social Security benefits for time that they worked before receiving legal status. Arlen Specter killed it. The bill allows illegal aliens to receive Social Security benefits for the years that they worked illegally, even if they paid into Social Security under a false number or using a stolen identity! As an American citizen, if I were caught stealing someone’s identity or forging documentation to avoid paying taxes, I’d go to jail. Not so illegal aliens! There are NO penalties for breaking those laws – only retro-active rewards. The longer they broke the law, the bigger the pay-off.

VOTING

Senator McConnell (R-KY) sought to add to the bill a requirement that all voters in federal elections be required to present a valid photo identification.

“It is nonsense to suggest that somehow a photo ID for one of our most sacred rights should not be protected by a requirement that is increasingly routine in almost all daily activities in America today,” said the Kentucky lawmaker, second-ranking Republican.

But Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, D-Mass., likened the proposal to a poll tax or a requirement for voters to pass a literacy test. “Now is not the time and this is not the place to consider an amendment that may disenfranchise a million or more poor, minority, disabled, and elderly voters â€” all of them American citizens,” he said.

The proposal barely passed on a vote of 49-48, but unfortunately, it remains in limbo, evidently doomed by arcane rules now that the Senate has voted for cloture.

What the bill DOES provide for is a Bureau of the Census report to Congress on the impact of illegal immigration on the apportionment of Representatives in Congress. Of course, they need to count them – they are, after all, their newly bought electorate!

“GUEST WORKER” STATUS – NOT TEMPORARY AT ALL

Here is a perfect of example of self-contradictory language within the bill itself. The bill supposedly protects American workers by ensuring that new immigrants will not take away jobs. However, the bill’s own definition of “United States Worker” includes temporary foreign guest workers, so the protection is meaningless.

Senator Kyl (R-AZ, amendment #3969) attempted to ensure that temporary workers stayed temporary by removing the bill’s provision allowing guest workers to apply for permanent residency. The Senator from his own state, McCain, killed the amendment.

Also, thanks to Senator Santorum (R-PA) the bill expands the visa waiver program (Immigration and Nationality Act, Sect 217) to numerous additional countries. At this point, why even bother with a visa? Waive it all!!

BUDGET

Senator Allard (R-CO), concerned by the incalculable administrative costs of implementing S. 2611, raised a point of order about the budget. Such a move is allowed under the Budget Act when the projected cost of legislation under consideration exceeds a certain level. If the point of order is upheld, the legislation cannot proceed. The Senate irresponsibly waived the protective rules under the Budget Act, rejecting the point of order 67-31. Apparently, no cost is too great.

THE “GO BACK TO THE END OF THE LINE” FALLACY

Bush’s former chief economic adviser Lawrence Lindsey blows the whistle on the “end of the line” fiction being used to sell the Bush/Senate immigration reform:

At present, there are hundreds of thousands of people around the world who are waiting to immigrate legally to America. They have already waited in line to get their first appointment, then to submit the paperwork, then been called back to answer more questions. And still, they wait. In places like Hong Kong, the waiting time may be as long as 15 years. Most of these people have relatives–cousins or grandchildren, for example–who live and work and pay taxes in America and even have become American citizens.

While the process isn’t pretty, there is no good alternative. Permission to reside in America is very valuable….

Comprehensive immigration reform promises that people already in the United States illegally can apply for citizenship, but requires them to “go to the back of the line.” But a key question is, the back of which line? The reform bill before the Senate doesn’t require illegal immigrants to go back home–to, say, Hong Kong, to the end of the 10-to-15-year line there–to get a green card. Instead, it allows the current illegals to receive their green card immediately–having, in effect, jumped the line at the U.S. consulate abroad. Then, like other green card holders, they will be able to work here, collect government benefits like food stamps and Medicaid, and travel as freely as if they had a U.S. passport.

The line the current illegals will go to the back of is the citizenship line. Under the proposed law, current illegals, newly minted green card in hand, will have to wait six years, then get in line to apply for citizenship. But even after six years, they will be years ahead of many people who have gone through the legal process and are waiting overseas for a consular official to let them come here. Once those who have been playing by the rules all along get here, they too have to wait six years before getting in line for citizenship.

If we really mean “the back of the line,” that should be behind everyone who is already in the pipeline to come here legally.

Let’s be real: this bill allows those who come here illegally to gain a huge advantage over those who follow the rules. This, in effect, creates an irresistible incentive for others to ignore the rules and come here illegally. Fast track it by going illegal – there’s no reason not to!

ZERO PROVISIONS TO MAKE IT ALL WORK

Lindsey has further concerns about the utter non-viability of the Senate’s bill:

In 2004, the INS issued 946,000 green cards and naturalized 537,000 people. The proposed immigration reform anticipates giving green cards to up to 11 million people [likely closer to 20 million] in one fell swoop and making them eligible for citizenship six years later. It is inconceivable that the INS could handle an eleven-fold increase in its workload. Do we really intend to pass a bill that purports to document these 11 million people without setting up a system capable of providing them the promised documentation? If we don’t, everyone else who is already here legally but needs a visa update, or has adopted a foreign-born child, or wants his aging mother to join him in America, will get swamped by the tsunami of newly legalized people seeking documentation.

VDare concurs and says that the guest worker program is an administrative catastrophe in the making: “Already, there are backlogs of millions of applications with CIS [Citizenship and Immigration Services] for the various immigration benefits. If any guest worker program or amnesty is enacted, the sheer amount of work in processing, receiving and vetting applications and the assorted work that goes with them (interviewing, fraud investigations, verifying documentation) will without a doubt delay any application already pendingâ€”even if additional staff are added. This includes, of course, those innocents who bothered to apply to enter the U.S. the right way.” No wonder, legal immigrants are so upset with this whole thing!

I do not understand how the Senate has been so willfully blind to the will of the people and so determined to ignore the future costs of their folly:

The approved bill would send the U.S. population skyrocketing towards a billion people by the close of the century â€” with no analysis done of the impacts of this mass population explosion on housing, congestion, overcrowding, education, the environment and the overall quality of life. Local communities have not been consulted, and virtually no preparation has been undertaken to provide for the enormous burdens this legislation would entail. It reflects the degree to which the Senate is completely out of touch with the average American.

Nor does the bill take any serious steps that would improve immigration enforcement â€” especially in the interior. It merely continues a cycle of rewarding lawbreakers and clothing a loss of border control with the patina of legality. Rather than face the reality of today’s immigration crisis, the Senate has enacted a terrible bill that once again puts the interests of the American people last. The bill’s cost is staggering, the administrative burdens crushing and the consequences for the cohesion of the future American nation â€” no longer bound by a common destiny of the rule of law â€” are severe.

_________________________________This has been a production of the Guard the Borders Blogburst. It was started by Euphoric Reality, and serves to keep immigration issues in the forefront of our minds as weâ€™re going about our daily lives and continuing to fight the war on terror. If you are concerned with the trend of illegal immigration facing our country, join our Blogburst! Just send an email with your blog name and url to euphoricrealitynet at gmail dot com.

As a followup to my $800 Gold prediction by August 1st, I note that George Kleinman writes about Gold, analysing open interest (OI), and comes to the same conclusion $800 for Gold.

He has followed the rise and fall of OI for 20 years and has some interesting and valuable information about the commodity that we can all use in the future, information that is not available to the stock trader. He writes

If prices are in an uptrend and open OI is falling, this is a bearish sign. The old longs, the â€œsmart moneyâ€ (after all they have been right to this point), are taking profits; theyâ€™re liquidating. They are replaced to some extent by new buyers who will not be as strong on balance, but the declining OI is an indication the weak shorts also are bailing. They will be replaced to an extent by new shorts who are stronger than the old shorts were.

The one thing I would point out, based on the reasoning of Bill Murphy at Le Metropole Cafe, is that OI should have built up faster than it actually did (see Kleinman’s chart). Murphy has argued that the very powerful bullion banks, as in Goldman Sachs, were covering their shorts like mad on any dips all the way up, offsetting new longs. That is why OI didn’t expand as much or as fast as the time in early 2006. Murphy kept saying that OI is still lower than in early 2006 and Gold is $100 higher. His call kept us in the move for a lot longer knowing that the shorts were trapped. At one point Murphy believed there was a 12,000 to 16,000 ton short position. He still believes it may be 10,000 to 14,000 tons short. In other words, we have a long way to go. Kleinman now is correctly calling for $800 Gold by viewing, based on his OI analysis (see Kleinman’s chart)

Lawrence Kudlow writes in Would Adam Smith Approve? that Capitalism needs a moral core and the conviction of Ken Lay and Jeffrey Skilling, does not signify a systemic infection, but an aberation, thanks to a hard working core of

government prosecutors are doing a fine job of re-imposing the rule of law and re-moralizing our economic system.

He argues that since WWII, the US has evolved 100 Million investors that George Bush calls the “ownership class”.

George W. Bush, a lineal descendant of Reagan, calls this the “ownership class.” And though I can’t prove it, I’m willing to bet that this group’s demand for lower tax rates and entrepreneurial activity goes hand in hand with the cultural characteristics of hard work, thrift, personal responsibility, and law-abiding behavior. (emphasis added)

Kudlow goes on to say that there is a new group of

CEOs engaging in the practice of backdating stock-option grants and other related forms of anti-shareholder compensation chicanery. The biggest demoralizing miscreant is William McGuire, CEO of United Health Group. In Washington, book-cooking at Fannie Mae has still to be properly punished.

Not to worry, the G-Men are here to save the day. Kudlow thinks that Adam Smith who said

capitalism requires a moral and ethical center if it is to function effectively and to the benefit of all

would be proud.

I’m sorry Larry, but I don’t see any core of morality and I’m certainly not inspired by the G-Men. How long did it take for them to dig through all of Fannie Mae’s accounting to find the $11 Billion of errors? The 100 million stock buyers are far removed from running the companies they own. Their trading has been supplanted by institutions and hedge funds. As far as thrift, they not only are the most indebted generation in history, but they have had no positive influence on a ever growing and ever spending government. Adam Smith wouldn’t understand how we have strayed so far from Capitalism.

But Larry, it’s when you look at government itself, that you see the rot and the lack of a moral core. Our government gives us fraudulent accounting and deceptive statistics. No one believes the numbers from the government. In addition the government has capped the gold price, at least as far back as Sec. Treasury Rubin, and has taken away our “canary in the coal mine”. Now it has stopped giving us M3.

Did our government allow our domestic industries to become obsolete, like TV production, flat screens etc?

Are they allowing illegals to invade our country to depress wages?

Has our government exchanged liberty for reliance on foreign oil?

Has our government exchanged sovereignty for dependence on foreign holders of the USD?

Since 1913 when Congress gave the power over money to a non-government entity, the Federal Reserve, the USD has been reduced from a gold-backed currency to a fiat currency that depends for its value on trust. A trust that has led to an inflation of our currency by at least 95%!

Ayn Rand said this about inflation:

Inflation is not caused by the actions of private citizens, but *by the government*: by an artificial expansion of the money supply required to support deficit spending. No private embezzlers or bank robbers in history have ever plundered people’s savings on a scale comparable to the plunder perpetrated by the fiscal policies of statist governments.”

We have a statist government that is no better than a common crook; an example that corporate executives follow. When a government can print any number of billions it wants then it has divorced the concept of value from production and that is immoral. That immorality has invaded the system.

Again Ayn Rand wrote:

Money is a tool of exchange, which can’t exist unless there are goods produced and men able to produce them. Money is the material shape of the principle that men who wish to deal wlth one another must deal by trade and give value for value. Money is not the tool of the moochers, who claim your product by tears or of the looters, who take it from you by force. Money is made possible only by the men who produce.

At a recent round table lunch on hedge funds Richard Oldfield, chief executive of the fund managers Oldfield Partners, said

â€œWe will look back and realise this was a barmy time,â€ adding that some hedge funds were walking a difficult regulatory line: some were close to acting as concert parties in bid situations and some were coming very close to front-running â€” the practice of trading ahead of oneâ€™s clients.

Aaron Russo says: There are no boundaries one must adhere to when preserving one’s liberty.

There’s a powerful new movie coming to your screen on July 28: Aaron RussoÃ¢â‚¬â„¢s AMERICA: FREEDOM TO FASCISM.

The primary objectives of the movie and the call to action are:

* Stop the polarization of America
* Stop the domination of the Democratic and Republican parties over our political system
* Shut down the Federal Reserve system
* Return America’s gold to Fort Knox and have it audited
* Have Congress and the IRS, in a public forum, reveal the law that requires Americans to pay a direct, unapportioned tax on their labor.
* Make computerized voting illegal in all 50 states
* Keep the internet free and out of the control of large institutions
* Rescind the law called the Real ID Act so Americans never have to carry a National ID Card
* Make it illegal to implant RFID chips in human beings
* Educate juries to the fact that they have the right to determine the law as well as the facts of a case
* Educate juries to the fact that they are not obligated to follow the instructions of a judge
* Stop Globalization because it is the path to a one world government
* Protect our borders
* Restore the environment
* Put an end to the Patriot Act
* Sign up millions of Americans so we can accomplish our objectives
Remember Barry Goldwater: Extremism in the defense of liberty is no vice; moderation in the pursuit of justice is no virtue.

Back in April, I wrote about trading gaps in the nearest Gold contract:

Now, our third gap took place on 02/06/2006 with a close at 574.3. IMO, the bottom was at 539.0 on 02/16/2006. As I indicated in my previous post, I believe we have broken out of a small head and shoulders bottom. If this move acts like the previous two our next high should be between 625.40 and 640.00, sometime in the first two weeks of April.

That gap was filled on March 29th, and Gold hit $636 on April 19th. While I missed the timing by three days, gold continued higher until May 11, at $728, a gain from the filling of the gap of about $148.

Now we have another two gaps on May 19th and May 24th (see chart). Those gaps will be filled when we trade at or above $680.20. If the gaps are filled, we should trade $148 higher from the gap or $828.20.

Assuming we close the gaps next week, based on the amount of time the last $148 took, I would guess that we trade over $800 prior to August 1st.

From the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), the Western world’s chief economic overseer, a warning:

the eventual rebalancing of the US current account gap ‘looks increasingly unavoidable’ and will send shock waves across the globe, starting with a slump in the dollar’s exchange rate.The OECD said in its world economic outlook that the depreciation faced by the dollar could be ‘of the order of one-third to one-half.’ (emphasis added)

London Irvine says if this were to happen, Japan and China could each lose $400 Billion in forex reserve value. Clearly, a USD fall would deal pain here and around the world.

UGANDA is set to start spraying homes countrywide with DDT (dichloro-diphenyl-trichloroethane) against malaria in July, the Government has announced.

In preparation for the DDT anti-malarial strategy, the US has given Uganda US$10m to fight malaria.

The US President George Bush anti-malarial initiative has chosen three African countries; uganda, Tanzania and Angola, former health minister Jim Muhwezi said.

Uganda loses over US$700m per year to malaria (more money than Uganda gets from donors to balance its budget), while between 100,000 and 120,000 people are killed by malaria annually, the Government says.

Muhwezi said the spraying was being coordinated at continental level by an organisation called WHO-AFRO.

The finals of Americam Idol are over. Sure, Taylor won the first round, Katharine won the second round and Taylor won the third. However, this is not about two out of three being the winner. It’s about CDs and whose would you buy. I already have some Joe Cocker, some Michael McDonald and some Elton John. I don’t have any Katharine McPhee.

To quote Nekesa Mumbi Moody of the Canadian Press

…she (Katharine) showed her true strength as she sang her rendition of Somewhere Over the Rainbow, breathing new life into a standard that has been so oversung by overwrought divas that most people wince when the opening notes of it are played. McPhee actually put her own beguiling stamp on it, infusing the classic with the kind of grace and innocence that Judy Garland did decades ago, and making it seem fresh and new.

Then there was the song Since I fell for you that Katharine sang way back in March. I downloaded two of the best versions by Michael Bolton and Barbara Streisand and those singers don’t come close to the Katharine version.

I’ll vote for Katharine and I will buy her CDs and she will get even better. Taylor can’t get better. I’m hoping for a Kat win, Taylor will take second place!

I live in Texas, and sometimes I think people don’t truly grasp the fact that the chaos on our borders is not a border state issue – it threatens them directly, no matter where they live. The fact is that our border chaos is directly linked to our national security. Terrorists already have and continue to illegally cross our border, blending in with illegals from Mexico and Central America, or brazenly crossing over with an armed escort of gang members or even the Mexican military.

Watch this video of an ongoing investigation done by the news team from KGRV TV serving
Harlingen-Weslaco-McAllen -Brownsville, Texas. (Video will open in your media player – it’s a news segment.) It is part of an ongoing series highlighting the culmination of months of investigative research into the flow of terrorists over our borders. Fred Burton, a counter-terrorism expert of Stratfor, was interviewed on camera. He stated that now is the perfect time for terrorists to sneak across the border. Escalating violence and an unprecedented flood of illegals is distracting law enforcement and stretching it thin. Zapata County sheriff, Frederigo Gonzales Jr. says that as for WMDs, it is not a matter of “if”, but “when”.

About one in every 10 caught border jumpers is an Arab. I don’t think I need to point out that if they are sneaking into the country illegally, they fit the profile and are probably terrorists. Unfortunately, we only catch about 25-33% of the flood of illegals, and estimates are that we absorb 3 million illegals (Time Magazine, September 2004 and Bear Stearns July 2005) that do make it through each year. That could mean that about 10% of the illegals that DO make it across are possible terrorists. Do the math: that’s potentially 300,000 terrorists making it into our country free and clear. Let’s get really skeptical and downgrade that so we feel better about it – let’s say only 1% of those that make it through are possible terrorists. That is only 30,000 – per YEAR. Is that OK? Considering it took 18 terrorists to wreak the terror of 9/11, is 300,000 or even 30,000 terrorists OK with you?If that’s a reasonable risk for you, then consider the percentage of potential terrorists that have already crossed the border and are living among us – sleeper cells in our own neighborhoods. The low estimate of illegals inside our border is 20 million, the high is 29 million. What’s 10% of that figure? Is a few million potential terrorists a reasonable risk?

For some strange reason, the smaller number of 30,000 is almost scarier to me. Maybe it’s just easier to grasp a few thousand insane killers bent on our destruction, instead of an army of millions. Maybe it’s because we can do still something about thousands – IF we act swiftly and ruthlessly – but a few million is an almost insurmountable…and it’s possibly far too late. Fred Burton agrees with that assessment â€“ he said the numbers of terrorists that have been caught is nothing compared to those that have made it through â€“ those numbers are huge.

If you are an open borders type and think it’s wrong to build any barrier along the border, or in any way militarize our border; or if you think illegal immigration is just about nice, poor people who want jobs, you need a wake-up call. Let’s look at some of the issues raised by the investigation in the video above as well as some others I’ve written about in the past year.

1. Several months ago, according to KGRV TV, two IEDs and components for 33 more were discovered in Laredo. It won’t be long before we face here in America, what our brave soldiers face every day in Iraq. And IEDs may be the least worrisome. If it’s a simple matter to smuggle 3,000 pounds of drugs across the border, as the sheriff mentioned, how much easier is it to carry across a suitcase bomb – a dirty nuke?

â€œSeveral al-Qaeda leaders believe operatives can pay their way into the country through Mexico and also believe illegal entry is more advantageous than legal entry for operational security reasons,â€ Deputy Secretary of Homeland Security Admiral James Loy testified on February 16 before the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence. â€œAt home, we must prepare ourselves for any attack, from IEDs (improvised explosive devices) to Weapons of Mass Destructionâ€¦from soft targets like malls to national icons.â€

2. A terrorist jacket, with patches depicting an Arab military and 9/11, was found in Hebbronville, TX. Finding terrorist garb is nothing new. In 2005:

Ms. Garner, who grew up here in Naco, population 7,000 says…”It is more dangerous and pernicious, with a growing number of people of different nationalities coming across the border, including from the Middle East, India, and Afghanistan.”

The evidence of that comes in Islamic prayer rugs found in the desert dust, Arabic literature left by still-warm campfires, and Afghani head garb caught on cactus quills. The FBI also recently found a drug tunnel beneath the bedroom of a schoolmate of one of the Garner girls, with $250,000 cash hidden inside.

3. In November 2005, a confirmed al Qaeda operative was arrested near the Mexican border and turned over to the FBI. He had been living in Mexico for six months and making notes of the movement of people and police officers.

4. Also in November of last year, A congresswoman from NC went on the record as noting that three al Qaeda operatives were being held in a jail in Texas, after being apprehended on the U.S.-Mexican border.

5. In 2005, in southern Texas alone, 51 suspected terrorists were captured while crossing the border [from the KGRV news report]. They came from countries such as Iran, Egypt, Syria, Iraq, and Pakistan, and were arrested on various charges of gun smuggling and illegally wiring large sums of money. We do not know where they are today. That’s a problem.

6. In 2005, 10 Egyptians were arrested in Douglas, Arizona.

7. In 2004, a high-level al Qaeda operative (comparable to Khalid Sheik Mohammed, the mastermind of 9/11) was arrested in McAllen, Texas attempting to make her way to New York after illegally crossing the border by swimming the Rio Grande. Though she was on a terrorist watch list, she had illegally entered into America at least 250 times before being caught!!!

8. In September of 2004, Action 4 News in Harlingen, Texas, learned that Al Qaeda cells – each group having from seven to fifteen suspected terrorist members were found just across the Rio Grande Valley in Mexico.

“We know from intelligence reports that there are middle easterners that are making their way in our direction,” said U.S. Congressman Jim Turner during a news conference at the Veterans Memorial International Bridge in Brownsville.

“We don’t know their purpose, but we do know that they are there and those reports are coming in increasing numbers. So it should be a wake-up call.”

9. In July of 2004, Adnan El-Shukrijumah, a high-ranking Al-Qaeda leader and one of the most wanted terrorists in the world, was spotted in Honduras meeting with members of the MS-13 gang. By August, he had may his way north and was spotted in north Mexico.

By the way, if you need proof that al Qaeda is working hand-in-glove with Latino gangs, go here – there’s plenty of reading.

10. In October of 2004, an intelligence report supplied to the Department of Homeland Security by Russian security services said that a group of 25 backpack-carrying Chechen terrorists – all white – illegally entered Arizona by way of Mexico last summer.

11. In September 2001, 10 Yemenis were arrested by Mexican police before trying to cross from Agua Prieta into Douglas, Arizona. They were released and they returned to Agua Prieta to try again, where they were joined by several other unidentified Arabs.

12. In November 1998, over 100 Iranians were apprehended in Arizona because of a tip called in by a border rancher.

Those are just a few examples. Our border security is non-existent, and our enemies are well aware of that fact.

While entry into the U.S. is their primary goal in establishing a base in Latin America, Islamist terrorists â€” well-aware of the allure Marxism once held for many south of the border â€” also see the region as a potential breeding ground for Islamic converts due to its poor economic and social conditions and corrupt governments.

For instance, the Shia terrorist group Hezbollah wields a strong presence in the tri-border region, a lawless, crime-ridden area where Argentina, Brazil and Paraguay intersect. Both Osama bin Laden and 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed are also said to have spent time there, during the 1990’s.

It was Mohammed who in 2002 encouraged alleged dirty bomber Jose Padilla to ‘enter the United States by way of Mexico’ in order to carry out attacks on U.S. targets, according to Deputy Attorney General James Comey.

Ironically, before converting to Islam and volunteering his services to Al-Qaeda, Padilla belonged to the Chicago chapter of the Latin Kings â€” like MS-13, a violent Hispanic criminal gang.

Although U.S. agents were able to collar Padilla before he could carry out a terrorist attack, the U.S. border strategy, as presently construed, may one day soon yield a much less savory result.

Hm, do you think so???

Nevertheless, as stated in the KGRV news report, our government does not want us to know of the terror threat flowing over our border. Homeland Security refused to respond to KGRV’s requests for an interview on the subject. And the government is doing everything they can to shut down the citizens who were once the greatest intelligence asset to to the Border Patrol in stopping terrorists crossing the border: American ranchers living along the border.

Perhaps the most valuable asset that the Border Patrol has is the aid of rural Cochise County (AZ) citizens. Many have attempted to help, in accordance with Arizona law. Through that legal process, landowners may execute a citizenâ€™s arrest for individuals or groups trespassing on their property. However, even that has been nullified.

[…]

Rural citizens here have met with savage recriminations for exerting their legal rights. Immigration advocacy groups howl in protest, as does the Mexican government. Their lawyers have demanded that the ranchers be prosecuted for false arrest, kidnapping, intimidation, criminal assault and violation of civil rights…Illegal immigrants have now sued some Cochise County citizens in American courts.

[…]

Ben Anderson, a retired U.S. Army colonel who lives in Sierra Vista, Ariz., has made a detailed study of the border danger since the flood of illegals began through Cochise County in 1997.

â€œThere is only one way to handle this,â€ the colonel says firmly. â€œIn a world now filled with biowarfare agents, backpack nuclear devices and chemical weapons like Sarin gas, we must militarize the border. There is no other way to stop the flow.â€

Congressman John Culberson (R-TX) concurs:

FBI Director Robert Mueller had previously “confirmed” in testimony before [a Congressional] committee “that there are individuals from countries with known al-Qaeda connections who are changing their Islamic surnames to Hispanic-sounding names and obtaining false Hispanic identities, learning to speak Spanish and pretending to be Hispanic immigrants.”

“And these are clearly Arab terrorists,” Rep. Culberson added, “from countries like Yemen, Iraq and Saudi Arabia. They’re crossing the border, pretending to be Hispanic immigrants, and then disappearing.”

Rep. Culberson said news of al-Qaedaâ€™s penetration of the U.S.’s southern border has him worried that the next terrorist plot could involve setting off simultaneous truck bombs in major urban centers.

“The day they blow us up,” he predicted, “the border will be sealed tighter than the Berlin Wall and you’ll have armed United States military forces” enforcing immigration laws.

That will be too late.

_________________________________This has been a production of the Guard the Borders Blogburst. It was started by Euphoric Reality, and serves to keep immigration issues in the forefront of our minds as weâ€™re going about our daily lives and continuing to fight the war on terror. If you are concerned with the trend of illegal immigration facing our country, join our Blogburst! Just send an email with your blog name and url to euphoricrealitynet at gmail dot com.

trading

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